To The Heart
by Rikayu-chan
Summary: The road to anything in life is never straight, even if it's something you never even hoped for. A series of related drabbles. NejiSaku
1. i: You Lose

**Disclaimer: **The characters I used in this story are not owned by me. All rights are reserved to Masashi Kishimoto, respective creator of _Naruto_.

**Author's Note:** This is a collection of drabbles and oneshots containing the pairing of Neji Hyuuga and Sakura Haruno. All installments are in the same timeline but do not necessarily portray an all-too-specific order of events. The purpose is to merely capture moments as the relationship sparks and progresses with time.

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**To The Heart**  
**By Rikayu**

**Chapter One: You Lose**

Adrenaline rushed through her body, her ears ringing and her eyes closed tightly. As she opened her eyes, everything around her was distorted and sounded muffled, as if someone had pushed her into murky water and had forgotten to give her goggles. For a moment, the hairs on the back of her neck rose and in a sudden backwards movement, she brought up a kunai in front of her face just in time to block another kunai from striking her.

A smirk graced her face and in a flurry of hand signs, she disappeared as a shower of shuriken pummeled the spot she had just been standing in. '_I'm not that easy!'_

As she hid in the shadows of the canopy, her green eyes surveying the ground beneath her. _'Where is he?' _Her hand brushed against the multiple kunai strapped to her thigh absently until her fingers felt the texture of a piece of paper hanging off of the knives. In an instant, she launched herself into the air, aiming and throwing the kunai at a nearby tree. Almost on contact, the immediate area around the kunai exploded with flames, sending the top part of the tree and many lower branches crashing towards the ground.

As the last of the flames died out, she quickly sunk back into the shadows, strands of her pink hair sticking to the sides of her face. She pressed herself against wood as she leaned back, her hands on either side of her.

Her eyes flicked in front of her and widened as she saw a white flash. She jumped across to another tree, the branch she had been previously perched on exploding and bringing the entire tree down. Before she could land on a suitable branch, however, the falling tree crashed into the one in front of her. As her foot touched own on her intended branch, the sideward jolt of the tree made her slip and caused her to lose her balance and fall forward.

As the vision of the forest ground was getting exceedingly bigger, she quickly twisted her body forward, flipping herself and landing on the ground crouched on both feet. For a brief moment, she froze in place and took in a deep breathe.

Hundreds of tiny and almost invisible strings ran throughout the area around her, criss-crossing all the way to the top of the trees. _'Not surprising...'_ Slowly, she straightened, careful not to touch any of the strings and stepped back. However, as she turned, her foot snagged a line and before she could react, and kunai was held against her throat.

A smile crossed her lips, "Nice try."

Her body disappeared in a cloud of smoke, in its place, a large piece of wood with a carving of a smiley face sticking its tongue out. As the stump fell to the ground, her captor took a step back then turned around, only to be hit in the face with a hard kick.

As her pink hair swirled around her face, she smirked. Her opponent fell to the ground with a thud a few feet away from her and she triumphantly placed her hands on her hips. "You lose," she smirked.

But before she could notice and react immediately, hands grabbed her around the shoulders and a kunai was placed firmly against her throat.

Her eyes fell on the figure on the ground in front of her. _'Oh shit...' _The person lying unconsious disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"I believe I have the right to say: you lose."

The hands around her released her and the kunai withdrew away from her neck. She wiped the sweat from her brow as she glared at her training partner. "Stuff it. You were going to lose, I was so close!"

"I always win."

"Arrogant prick."

"Immaturity and name-calling won't change that you lost, Haruno."

The pink-haired kunoishi rolled her eyes. "For your information, Hyuuga, I'm just stating a known fact. You _are_ an arrogant prick."

"And it is also a fact, that you lost."

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	2. ii: Hands

**Disclaimer: **The characters I used in this story are not owned by me. All rights are reserved to Masashi Kishimoto, respective creator of _Naruto_.

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**To The Heart  
****By Rikayu**

**Chapter Two: Hands**

The sun was setting and it was beautiful. Colors of orange, yellow, and red dance all over Konoha. As the large burning orb in the sky sank, Sakura couldn't help but sigh, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall. But no matter how beautiful it was, Sakura never liked sunsets. She always preferred sunrises, but maybe that was because she'd always been such an early bird.

Another sigh escaped her lips as her eyes drifted down to her wristwatch. It was about time that she should be heading home, except...

The sound of groaning roused her from her reverie and she turned. Her patient was slowly pushing himself up from his bed, the blankets sliding down to reveal a bandaged torso. Sakura let a rather lopsided smile grace her face, the breeze blowing through the window wafting up the loose strands of pink hair tied back in a messy bun.

"It's about time you woke up," she said. "And you know, you really shouldn't be getting out of bed."

White eyes met hers and she smirked, walking over to the bed. She stood in front of her patient and bent down enough to face him eye to eye. With one hand on her hip, the other one reached forward and poked the ninja softly in the ribs.

Neji winced. "See. I told you so."

He didn't say anything and despite the pain radiating througout his body, remained in his seated position as green eyes ran down his bandaged torso. "It seems that you're healing fairly quickly," he heard, "You should be able to get out of here in a few days or so."

Sakura straightened turned to her side to pull up a chair. She sat down, scooting close to the bed and motioned for him to lie down. She then placed her hands on her patient's chest. A faint green glow filled the darkening room as Sakura's chakra pulsed through her hand and wove through Neji's wounds.

The warmth flowing through his cold body made him want to shudder. He watched as the medic-nin's practiced hands glided across his chest slowly then moved up to his shoulders. As he felt her lean forward, however, he couldn't help but notice the look of worry on Sakura's face.

"Your left shoulder will take the longest to fully heal." Slowly, Sakura stood and tapped the bag of liquid sedative hanging next to the bed, a small frown on her face.

"Try not to exert yourself so much," she said quietly. "I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to always rush you to the critical ward every time you come in here."

A pause.

"I'm tired of seeing your ugly face," she ended with a smirk.

Neji rolled his eyes. "I'm glad you're so _concerned_."

Sakura laughed placed her hand on his. "I mean it though. You need to take care of yourself more."

Before he could reply however, Neji felt his eyes grow heavy, the sedatives starting to take effect. His vision darkened and before everything went black, he felt her hand give his a warm squeeze.

"Get some rest, Hyuuga. I'll see you in the morning."

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**End Note:** At the moment, I don't really know how long this whole story is going to be, but the idea is in my head, so I intend to finish it. My other stories are... err... still underway. I have... several half-written chapter that need to be finished and posted. :P

_EDIT: I rewrote a few parts because I was very unsatisfied with how this chapter turned out when I read over it again. :P_

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	3. iii: Late

**Disclaimer:** The characters I used in this story are not owned by me. All rights are reserved to Masashi Kishimoto, respective creator of Naruto.

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To The Heart  
**By Rikayu**

**Chapter Three: Late**

His eyebrow twitched.

She was late.

It wasn't uncommon for his training partner... but the sun had already sunken below the horizon and the stars were starting to poke out of the darkness of the sky. By then, Neji had been waiting there for four hours. Even Hatake Kakashi wasn't _this_ late.

An hour or so passes and he decides that Sakura was not going to show up. Neji then heads home.

This same process, however, continues on for another couple of days until it becomes obvious that something strange is up. A quick visit to Konoha's hospital reveals that the pink-haired kunoichi hasn't showed up to work for several days. Even the Godaime hasn't heard from the girl at all.

Neji dismissed it and continued on with his afternoon exercises alone. Until that is, he drops by at the infirmary for a routine check-up to find that a shy, black-haired girl had replaced his usual medic. Later that day, Neji found himself blinking down at a pink tuft of hair sticking out of a mass white blankets.

A terrible cough resounded in the air as the pink strands disappeared under the blankets. Slowly, two legs poked out and swung to the side of the bed. As the tips of toes touched the wooded surface of the floor, the bundle of blankets rose to reveal a very sick looking Sakura. Her hair was in utter disarray, sticking in all directions. Her skin was pale and cheeks were flushed with fever.

"H-Hyuuga?" The girl blinked groggily, dark circles marking the bottoms of her eyes.

"What are you doing here?" she jumped up, pointing a finger towards him while to other hand held the blankets tightly around her body. But the disbelief and shock in her eyes all too quickly waned as her exhaustion took hold of her. Her knees buckled and Sakura fell forward.

Neji immediately caught her and felt as her body sagged heavily into his arms. Kicking the blankets away from his feet so he could get a better grip on her, he hoisted her up and laid her down in the bed. He then disappeared into another room of the apartment and returned moments later with a clean blanket, a small basin of water, and a hand towel.

She was shivering and tiny beads of sweat lined her face and neck. And as Neji moved to cover her with the new blanket, Sakura turned in her bed and buried her face in her pillow, releasing hard coughs one after the other. After her coughs subsided, Neji pulled a chair towards her bed and sat down.

The next day, Neji Hyuuga, surprisingly, didn't show up for his ANBU meeting at all.

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	4. iv: Wind

**Disclaimer:** The characters I used in this story are not owned by me. All rights are reserved to Masashi Kishimoto, respective creator of _Naruto_.

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To The Heart  
**By Rikayu**

**Chapter Four: Wind**

The breeze swirled around the small clearing, the trees dancing to the rhythm and the leaves rustling in song. A single leave dislodged from a branch and twirled in the wind. It bounded up and down and side to side before landing silently in a sea of pink.

A sigh escaped Sakura's lips. The sun was up and high in a cloudless blue sky, but the shade of a large oak tree and the cool touch of the breeze kept her from any sort of uncomfortable heat as she was lying down on the grass with her arms outspread.

This was the much needed break she'd been craving for in the past weeks of rushing injured shinobi to the hospital ward. Apparently, there'd been some recent uprising in an island province somewhere near Sand. So, Konoha had dispatched a few squads of ninja to help the Kazekage.

She smiled. She hadn't seen the red-haired boy in a long while. Maybe one day, if she got the chance to, a visit to the Sand siblings would be nice.

The breeze picked up a little bit and the pink tresses lining her face were tossed around, loose strands splaying across her cheeks. The drums of familiar footsteps crept to her ears, but she remained in her spot on the grass, eyes closed and relishing the cool wind. Then suddenly, there was a dull thud very, very near to her right ear.

Slowly, green eyes looked up at a mass of brown and two white eyes staring back. A kunai was sticking out of the ground next to her ear, but Sakura still didn't move, only stared up at the young man standing above her with his feet right above her head. "Hyuuga..."

But before Neji could utter any sort of reply, the kunai that was previously on the ground was launched up in his direction. He took a swift step back and the kunai imbedded itself on a high branch of the oak tree. The game had begun.

A few hours later, the two shinobi found themselves covered in a minor scratches and semi-dusty clothes. As the setting sun sent the sky into a soft frenzy of orange, red, and small hints of purple, the two sat in a comfortable silence. The breeze gently wafted around them, tossing down a few leaves here and there.

A lone leaf, however, had managed to find itself stuck in Sakura's short hair. Without thinking, Neji's hand went up to pluck it out.

"Oh, thanks," Sakura said, ruffling her hair a little bit. Then she motioned at her dirtied clothes, "Not like its going to make that much of a difference, though."

The kunoichi stood and stretched her arms as she let out a yawn. "Same time tomorrow, Hyuuga?" she asked as she turned and look down at her training partner sitting down on the grass.

The white-eyed ninja nodded, then Sakura smiled a goodbye before starting her walk back towards town. He watched the glow of the sunset colored her body as she walked away while the wind whipped around him, now strong and bold unlike the soft breeze from earlier that afternoon. His brown hair tossed around in tune with the intricate dance of her pink strands around Sakura's head.

The feeling of her hair still lingered on the skin on his fingertips.

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	5. v: Summer Time

**Disclaimer:** The characters I used in this story are not owned by me. All rights are reserved to Masashi Kishimoto, respective creator of _Naruto_.

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To The Heart  
**By Rikayu**

**Chapter Five: Summer Time**

On the fifth day of their mission to a tiny village on the outskirts of the Fire Country, the sun blazes across the sky with no mercy. The road is desolate and somehow completely void of trees or any form of shade. It is so hot that even the great Neji Hyuuga had tied his hair up in a high ponytail and shed his usual haori with only a thin, white gi covering his torso.

Sakura grimaced. "This is ridiculous! You'd think they'd send us somewhere cooler during the dead center of summer!"

Her pink hair was sticky and most of it was tied back into a ponytail while her bangs stubbornly clung to her cheeks and the sides of her forehead. Aggravatedly, she slung her backpack off her shoulders and threw it on the dirt, her red shirt stick out one of the pockets. She'd shed it off earlier as the dry weather was becoming unbearable, leaving her with only a black tank top covering her torso.

She wiped the back of her hand across her sweaty forehead and sat down on a large rock. The road in front of them had divided into three, none of which looked very promising for any shade-rich haven. They hadn't even passed by any other town or village since they'd left Konoha.

"How much longer do you think it'll take for us to reach the village?"

"At least one more day, maybe two."

Sakura groaned. The thought of the inevitable sunburn loomed tauntingly in her head. She was definitely going to strangled the Godaime once she'd get back to Konoha.

"Hyuuga, give me some water, please..." she uttered, harsh and irritated as the sun continued to beat down on them.

He complied and the kunoichi thankfully took the water pouch from him. However, moments later, Neji began to regret giving her the water as his pearly white eyes focused intently on a miniscule drop that had escaped the girl's lips. The slip of water ran down her chin and then so achingly slow down the length of Sakura's neck until it slid down her collar bone and disappeared behind her black tanktop right in-between her--

"Here you go--"

Sakura blinked as she held out the water pouch to no one. She turned her head and saw as Neji was already walking down the dirt road going to the left. Hurriedly picked up her bag and slung it "Hey! Wait!"

"We are going to get there in another five days if you are being so slow," she heard him call back to her.

"Jerk!"

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	6. vi: Octopus Face

**Disclaimer: **The characters I used in this story are not owned by me. All rights are reserved to Masashi Kishimoto, respective creator of _Naruto_.

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To The Heart  
**By Rikayu**

**Chapter Six: Octopus Face**

Neji stared down at the bento box placed in his hands, then lifted his eyes to look at the girl standing in front of him. She was grinning up at him, a sparkle in her green eyes.

"Happy Birthday, Hyuuga," he heard his training partner greet.

Now normally, a birthday for the Hyuuga-branch member consisted of nothing more than just his daily routine: morning training, fulfilling his duties as an ANBU captain, an errand or two for the Hyuuga family, perhaps lunch with a friend or a colleague, maybe a dull meeting, then more training. Nothing special. For most of the years of his life, he had avoided any sort of unnecessary celebration on his birthday. In fact, his day had gone by with not even a mention of his day of birth until a pink-haired kunoichi ran into the clearing, late as usual, with a box in her hands.

He almost expected the package neatly wrapped in a cloth to explode, a clear mark to begin their usual afternoon training session. But it didn't, only sat in his hands innocently. After a few more moments of assessing whether or not the box was simply trap, Neji found himself sitting under a tree, Sakura sitting next to him and eagerly waiting for him to open his gift.

Gingerly, his fingers worked to untie the knot. The cloth dropped and Neji placed it to the side before sliding to lacquer lid off the box. Absently, the pink embroidery of the cloth reminded him of Sakura's hair...

As Neji lifted the lid, surprisingly, it really didn't blow up.

The open bento revealed an array of foods carefully organized to fit. Though not particularly high cuisine as was common in his family's home, it certainly was... colorful, to say the least.

"Sorry if its not much. I made it myself."

The bento box was then taken from his hands and placed on the ground, the cloth it had been previously wrapped in, neatly spread out on the ground. Sakura sat opposite of him and was reaching out her hand to him with a set of chopsticks. He took them and placed them in the appropriate position in his right hand.

"Itadakismasu!" Sakura clapped her hands with a smile. Neji did the same, without the clap and in a much more, quiet version.

His white eyes scanned over the food, narrowing slightly as he found himself looking with a little interest at a small, four-limbed, octopus-looking thing. His chopsticks squeezed the it in place and he brought it up to his face, only to see it staring back at him.

"Stop staring at it like that, Hyuuga," Sakura stared at him, a tad bit annoyed. "Its not like its poisoned."

_'It is staring at me,'_ he almost wanted to say as he turned his chopsticks ever so slightly to observe it and its tiny, carved, smiling face.

Slowly, Neji opened his mouth and placed the smiling piece of food on his tongue. He closed his lips and chewed. It was pleasant, until a small burning sensation materialized at the very tip his tongue.

Sakura stared at him in anticipation. "How is it? I know I'm not a very good cook, but what do you think?"

Blink. Blink.

"Hyuuga?"

At this point, the burning had spread to the entirety of Neji's tongue and tiny beds of sweat began to form on his face and neck. As he swallowed, his throat also began to burn, his face turning to same reddish color of the thing he just consumed.

"W-what's wrong?"

His face darkened in color as he opened his mouth. "Water..." he choked out.

"Oh my--Hyuuga!!" the kunoichi flung forward in panic as Neji fell back, unconscious.

Unfortunately, Hinata had forgotten to tell Sakura that Neji didn't particularly tolerate spicy foods all too well.

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**End Note: **Haha... I love spicy foods, particularly kimchi and calamari, cabbage and carrots cooked in a spicy, kimchi-based tomato sauce.

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	7. vii: Stains

**Disclaimer: **The characters I used in this story are not owned by me. All rights are reserved to Masashi Kishimoto, respective creator of Naruto.

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**To The Heart**  
**By Rikayu**

**Chapter Seven: Stains**

All of Konoha seemed to lay in an undisturbed state of silence as the skies darkened into a steady black. The skies soon became spotted with twinkling lights, but the silence continued. Not even the wind dared to break the quiet.

His eyes trailed at the girl sitting at the window. She looked so frail, her pink hair undone and messy, her knees pulled to her chest as her eyes were pointed towards the sky. One would think that if they'd even touch her, she's break into a thousand pieces of glass. But he knew better than that. Sakura Haruno was a strong girl.

He stayed against the wall, waiting and cloaked by the shadows. He'd been watching her for a few hours now, but the girl remained unmoving and as silent as the night. She only looked out the window, staring at what seemed like nothing at all. Then his lips sloped into a frown. Her arms were covered in bandages and a few scratches were noticable on her bare legs. Other injuries were hidden under the thin hospital gown she wore.

The battle that had taken place had been a difficult one, but the girl had gone with an unwavering determination. Upon her return to the village, she was a bloodied mess and was immediately rushed to the critical ward along with Naruto Uzumaki and a few others. Neji hadn't been too worse for wear, while Sakura had been confined to intensive treatment almost two weeks before being moved to a closed room for the remainder of her recovery.

"The stars are really beautiful tonight..."

Neji looked up at sound of her voice. He watched as she slowly turned her head towards him, her eyes strangely glowing in the dark. "Don't you think so?" A smile played by her lips in a sorrowful, almost broken manner.

Silently, he moved closer until he stood next to her. But by then, her smile had faded and Sakura had once again, turned her head to look up at the inky sky. His hand moved up slowly to rest on her shoulder only for Neji to notice as small droplets of tears ran down her cheeks.

She was crying.

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**End Note:** Maybe you might have guessed it already, but the battle that's mentioned in the beginning is the fight with Sasuke. Nothing too specific really, but I felt it was necessary to write this chapter, though I've been a little off for a while, so I aologize if the chapter's not all that good. Anyway, I'll leave it to you to guess what happened to out darling little Uchiha.

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	8. viii: Lanterns

**Disclaimer: **The characters I used in this story are not owned by me. All rights are reserved to Masashi Kishimoto, respective creator of _Naruto_.

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**To The Heart**  
**By Rikayu**

**Chapter Eight: Lanterns**

It was very crowded in the small town they're arrived at a few days ago. The streets were lined with vendors and shops as dozens of lanterns hanging from lines criss-crossed from one building to another. People everywhere were wearing masks, and as the innkeeper had explained, it was the town's annual lantern festival.

They'd come here to track down a few rogue ninja who were causing problems along Konoha's borders. And Tsunade had apparently thought that it had a connection with the uprisings in Sand that the Kazekage had been dealing with for the last few months.

Grrrrrgggckk.

A noticable pout appeared on Sakura's face, her hand rubbing her stomach. The delicious smells from the food vendors were killing her, and as she passed by a ramen stand she almost died.

She shook her head and adjusted the scarf around her neck to better conceal the collar of her ANBU uniform that she wore under her kimono. She turned to face her companion, determined to focus only on their mission. But to her surprise, Neji Hyuuga had disappeared. She scanned the crowd carefully, her eyes switching from masked person to masked person, but still no Hyuuga. The frown on her face only deepened.

_'What the hell! Did he just ditch me?'_

After walking past a few more booths, Sakura moved her ANBU mask to cover her face and silently slipped away from the other festival goers. In one graceful movement, she bolted upwards and landed on a roof, the red scarf around her neck whipping behind her and the fabric of her kimono ruffling slightly. As she criss-crossed between buildings, Neji was still nowhere in sight, worry overtaking her earlier feelings of irritation and anger. What if they'd figured out who he was?

Sakura shook her head and jumped up to the roof of a taller building. Her friend was not so careless as to let himself be caught, at least not without a fight. She smirked under her mask as she stepped forward to stand at the very edge of the roof where all the festivities and the intricate weave of lanterns could be seen, resembling an ocean of soft, flickering lights almost.

Then the hairs on the back of her neck raises as the kunoichi felt a presence behind her. Swiftly spinning, she sent a shuriken that had been hidden in her sleeve hurling towards her surprise attacker. After a faint blur, the shuriken clanged against the tiles of the roof and Sakura soon realized just who shed just attacked.

The shadows and soft glow of the lanterns danced playfully across his white fox-like mask, and it looked beautifully frightening, to say the least. But a smile crossed her face anyway under her own mask until her frustration began to surface once more. "You ditched me, you bastard!"

But before she could continue on with channeling her anger output on him, he pulled out what looked like two sticks of takoyaki and held them out towards her. Heavenly, utterly delicious-smelling takoyaki.

"You're hungry," he said, "I simply went to get you something to eat."

A big grin spread across Sakura's face and she hastily pulled her mask to the side, her eyes sparkling merrily. Her fingers wrapped around the end of one of the takoyaki sticks, and as she brought the food to her lips, the Hyuuga decided to continue.

"The constant grumbling of your stomach was becoming intolerable to ignore."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched.

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	9. ix: Sacrifice

**Disclaimer: **The characters I used in this story are not owned by me. All rights are reserved to Masashi Kishimoto, respective creator of _Naruto_.

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**To The Heart**  
**By Rikayu**

**Chapter Nine: Sacrifice**

Numb.

He knew he couldn't feel his feet. Or his arms... In fact, he couldn't feel anything in his body except for the pounding migraine that assaulted his head and a strange... warmth on his chest.

He couldn't hear anything. Not the chaos of the battle or the shouts of his other companions as they struggled to keep fighting; he heard nothing. But the deafening sound of the pouring rain filled his ears easily.

He couldn't see anything. He couldn't even open his eyes because he didn't have the strength. He was weak. Pathetic. He almost even wanted to succumb completely to this blackness.

"Neji..."

It was faint, but he could hear it...

"Neji..."

He could hear it.

"Neji... please wake up..."

He could feel it... It was wet.

"Please wake up... Neji."

Then he felt something warm brush his face... and with a strength it seemed to give him, he opened his white eyes and stared up at a kunoichi who seemed to be as badly injured as he was. Haruno..

The air was cold and the rain and mud had started seeping into his battered clothes. But the droplets falling onto his cheeks, the warmth, were tears from his pink-haired fellow ninja, companion... friend...

Sakura...

Her green eyes looked frantically up and down his body as he felt her hands peel away at the fabric covering his chest. As blood poured freely from a large gash on his chest, he felt the urge to scream from the excruciating pain but couldn't even open his mouth. Instead,he could do nothing but stare up blankly at the crying sky.

"No! Stay with me, damn it! Neji!"

Her chakra flowed into him and he could feel how he drained her body of the last bits of energy she had left. He wanted to tell her she was an idiot. What use was his sacrifice if she was going to get herself killed anyway?

"Please don't die... Please..."

She was starting to disappear.

"Please..."

She was hunched over him, her arms locked around his neck and her hair mingled with his blood. Her body slacked inevitably, but she refused to let him go until she was just as numb as he was.

"Neji..."

He wouldn't let go either. He couldn't.

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**End Note:**I hope this wasn't _too_ confusing. The main concept is that during a fight, Neji had saved Sakura and therefore, was dealt heavy blows to. Hence, he's badly hurt. And Sakura's trying to heal him as best she can even though she's running low as it is.

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	10. x: Excuses

**Disclaimer: **The characters I used in this story are not owned by me. All rights are reserved to Masashi Kishimoto, respective creator of _Naruto_.

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**To The Heart**  
**By Rikayu**

**Chapter Ten: Excuses**

If only Ino hadn't coaxed her. But it was only tradition after all, so _not_ going to her place for the usual weekend thing was considered a terrible crime. Ino-pig would go rampaging throughout all of Konoha, and that usually wasn't pretty.

If only Shikamaru wasn't so non-chalant about the whole matter, maybe he'd actually think of stopping the crazy woman. But she had him wrapped around her little finger, so there was no use in even trying.

If only the dinner Choji had prepared hadn't been so sweet-smelling from the window then maybe she would have actually gone through her plan of only staying to chat for a while. As much as the ninja loved to eat food, he also loved to cook, and Sakura was one of his favorite testers for any new concoctions.

If only Kiba and Naruto weren't fighting over the last pork dumpling, maybe Hinata wouldn't have had to play peacemaker. With Ino making most of her time for her family's flower shop and her now two-year boyfriend in Shikamaru, Hinata was the only person where girl-talk could be applied... That is, if she wasn't off somewhere with Naruto, which had been happening more frequently as of late.

If only Shino actually talked more. The silent one still kept to himself for most of the time, and she'd chanced upon exchanging casual conversation a few times, but nothing much. And she was still a little uncomfortable with the bugs...

If only, if only...

If only someone hadn't started bringing out the sake. Naruto's face wouldn't have turned a bright red as he laughed and laughed at some stupid joke Kiba had said about green goblins, or something of the sort. Hinata wouldn't be blushing so much that she had turned the color of Naruto's face as well. Even the quiet Shino had taken to laughing with Shikamaru and Ino. Choji was already passed out on the floor.

If only she hadn't kept promising herself to drink only one or two. As the drinks started to come, one or two became 'Well maybe just one more'. She enjoyed falling into it as much as the others did, and it didn't take her long to start swaying and feel the warmth of the alcohol spread across her cheeks.

If only, if only...

If only this wasn't normal, the mandatory attendance, the food, the drink, the company... Oh kami, the company. The faces she saw nearly everyday and called 'friend', and felt comfortable to spend her time with.

If only this tradition wasn't tradition in their mutual undestandings then she could walk home without concern and save it for some other time. The need for an ending where they would all part ways wouldn't be necessary.

But it was.

So as tradition followed, Sakura exited the door to walk home at around 2 in the morning with Neji Hyuuga as her escort. They'd walk the same route each time, passing by a closed Ichiraku on the way to her apartment. A comment here, a smart phrase there; the usual conversation.

If only it had taken the usual less than 15 minutes to reach their destination, but giggles and staggering feet have a way of prolonging things. A walk to the door and a plan for the next day's training session was as good as a goodbye as any. But as Sakura smiled and Neji stepped forward into her dark apartment, tradition was broken.

* * *

**End Note: **I had fun writing that. =3

**PLS REVIEW.**


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